Inside Higher Ed's 2019 version of the survey, released today in advance of the annual meeting of the National Association of College and University Business Officers, suggests that CBOs at regional public colleges -- which a recently published Inside Higher Ed special report calls the "vast middle" of public higher education, positioned between research universities and community colleges -- are more pessimistic than their peers on multiple fronts. They are less confident in the financial stability of their institutions over a decade than their counterparts in any other sector (28 percent express confidence, none strongly, compared to an average for all institutions of 62 percent); more likely than those at other types of colleges to expect their institution to share academic programs or administrative functions with another college in the next five years, and to say their institution should share administrative functions or merge in that time; and less likely to believe their colleges are well prepared to withstand the economic downturn that many economists predict is on the way.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/survey/survey-business-officers-finds-four-year-publics-see-peril-ahead
